Tim Cook Charity Auction Brings In $310K for RFK Center

Last year the auction of an hour-long coffee meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook at CharityBuzz dazzled the Internet as the winning figure reached $610,000. This year's auction just ended, but the winning bid of $330,001 isn't quite as impressive as the numbers in 2013.

It's widely thought that the winning bid wasn't as high due to the site's demand for credit card validation — a new requirement intended to address the considerable amount of spurious bids that ocurred during last year's auction.

As before, the money from the winning bidder benefits the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, which lists its mission as working toward "a just and peaceful world by partnering with human rights leaders, teaching social justice and advancing corporate responsibility."

Under the terms of the auction, the winner will have lunch with Tim Cook at Apple Headquarters at a "mutually agreed upon date." While the cost of the meal is included, the winner is expected to pay for his or her own travel expenses to visit Cupertino. As a bonus, Cook announced via Twitter on May 10 that the winner would be a VIP guest at an upcoming Apple event.

There's currently no word on who the winner is, although it's possible we might learn during one of the upcoming Apple events Cook mentioned. And while $330,001 isn't quite as impressive a figure as last year's $610,000, it's still considerably more than the $100,000 that CharityBuzz listed as the meeting's value.